Lyrics What Made America Famous? - Harry Chapin

What Made America Famous?

It was the town that made America famous
The churches full and the kids all gone to hell
Six traffic lights and seven cops and all the streets kept clean
The supermarket and the drug store and the bars all doing well
They were the folks that made America famous
The local fire department stocked with shorthaired volunteers
And on Saturday night while America boozes
The fire department showed dirty movies
The lawyer and the grocer seeing their dreams
Come to life on the movie screens
While the plumber hopes that he won’t be seen
As he tries to hide his fears and he wipes away his tears
But something’s burning somewhere.
Does anybody care?
We were the kids that made America famous
The kind of kids that long since drove our parents to despair
We were lazy long hairs dropping out, lost confused, and copping out
Convinced our futures were in doubt and trying not to care
We lived in the house that made America famous
It was a rundown slum, the shame of all the decent folks in town
We hippies and some welfare cases
Crowded families with coal black faces
Cramped inside some cracked old boards
The best that we all could afford
But still too nice for the rich landlord
To tear it down, and we could hear the sound
Of something burning somewhere.
Is anybody there?
We all lived the life that made America famous
The cops would make a point to shadow us around our town
And we «love children» put a swastika on the bright red firehouse door
America, the beautiful, it makes a body proud
And then came the night that made America famous
Was it carelessness or someone’s sick idea of a joke?
In the tinderbox trap that we hippies lived in, someone struck a spark
At first I thought I was dreaming
Then I saw the first flames gleaming
And heard the sound of children screaming
Coming through the smoke.
That’s when the horror broke
Something’s burning somewhere.
Does anybody care?
It was the fire that made America famous
The sirens wailed and the firemen stumbled sleepy from their homes
And the plumber yelled: «Come on let’s go!»
But they saw what was burning and said: «Take it slow
Let 'em sweat a little, they’ll never know
And besides, we just cleaned the chrome.»
Said the plumber: «Then I’m going alone.»
He rolled on up in the fire truck
And raised the ladder to the ledge
Where me and my girl and a couple of kids
Were clinging like bats to the edge
We staggered to salvation
Collapsed on the street
And I never thought that a fat man’s face
Would ever look so sweet
I shook his hand in the scene that made America famous
And a smile from the heart that made America great
We spent the rest of that night in the home of a man I’d never known before
It’s funny when you get that close, it’s kind of hard to hate
I went to sleep with the hope that made America famous
I had the kind of a dream that maybe they’re still trying to teach in school
Of the America that made America famous… and
Of the people who just might understand
That how together, yes we can
Create a country better than
The one we have made of this land
We have a choice to make each man
Who dares to dream, reaching out his hand
A prophet or just a crazy God damn
Dreamer of a fool — yes a crazy fool
There’s something burning somewhere
Does anybody care?
Is anybody there?
Is anybody there?